The study involves the analysis of the interrelating variables of population, kinship and family, and land-holding in a Southwest German village from its traditional structure through the complex process of modernization. Neckarhausen is a typical wheat-growing, partible inheritance, nucleated village which like its neighbors underwent significant fluctuations in population during the period. The study will deal with how kinship and other social networks vary over time and how their degree of integration affects marriage strategy and how the latter is related to the holding of property. The study will be concerned with the whole problem of the devolution of property to the succeding generation. It will look at the nature of dowry and its effects on marriage; the size, structure, and development cycle of the peasant household; fertility as a function of wealth or social status; and peasant strategies for ensuring successors while at the same time limiting the size of the group claiming a living from the holding. A further aspect will be to delineate the nature of conflict within the family during the periods of population pressure and periods of release. In method the project involves an adaptation of family reconstitution as devised by French historical demographers. Besides parish registers (baptisms, marriages and burials) other sources of data will be used: marriage contracts, post mortem inventories, cadastars, and tax valuations. Total files of information relating to all individuals in the parish during the period will be developed by computer.